Body Is Identified As Alton Couple`s Baby

May 05, 1989|By Michael Tackett, Chicago Tribune.

ALTON, ILL. — Authorities Thursday identified the body of an infant found in a garbage can Wednesday night as that of a 6-week-old Alton girl whose parents had reported her abducted by a masked gunman.

``The body of the baby . . . has definitely been identified as Heather Sims,`` said Bob Grooms, an FBI spokesman in Springfield.

The case had taken on added importance because the infant`s parents, Robert and Paula Sims, had reported another daughter, just 13 days old, had been abducted under startlingly similar circumstances nearly three years ago.

Grooms refused to say whether authorities had determined the cause of death.

Late Thursday, investigators began a search of the Simses` Alton home after breaking windows to gain entrance to the building, which was vacant at the time.

A fisherman discovered Heather`s body in a black plastic garbage bag near Lock and Dam 26 on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River 30 miles north of St. Louis.

The identification also was confirmed by Sheriff Frank Yocom of Jersey County, Ill., who is assisting in the investigation.

The discovery and identification of the body are important for authorities because both are considered essential to bringing possible criminal charges in connection with the baby`s disappearance.

``It gives you a crime scene, maybe a motive and a whole lot of other possible things,`` Yocom said.

Attempts to reach the parents were unsuccessful, but authorities said they knew their whereabouts.

Dr. Mary Case, medical examiner in St. Charles County, Mo., said she performed an autopsy Thursday. ``It is a homicide,`` she said.

The Simses, who also have a 15-month-old son, told police that Heather was abducted at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday after Paula Sims was accosted by a masked gunman while she was taking out the garbage. She told police the gunman struck her unconscious. When her husband returned home, she told police, he revived her and they discovered Heather was missing.

The story of the abduction is similar to the circumstances of the disappearance of Heather`s sister, Loralei. On June 17, 1986, Mrs. Sims told police a masked gunman entered her home, then in Brighton, Ill., and ordered her to lie face down on the floor. She said the gunman then abducted Loralei. The remains of a body that authorities concluded was Loralei`s were found a week later in woods 100 feet from the Simses` home. The parents were considered suspects, according to Yocom, who had jurisdiction over that case. Yocom said both failed polygraph examinations, then invoked their 5th Amendment protections against self-incrimination before a county grand jury.